The 3 worst cold emails I got this week

Well, well, well… As the self-anointed King of Cold Email, I feel it’s my obligation and duty to routinely shed light on awful cold pitching strategies that make their way into my inbox. Because while it’s easy to hit “SPAM” and move on with my day, it’s way more fun to break down why they’re so bad. And show you how to win by doing the complete opposite. And boy do I have some good stuff for you today, including: - A deceptive “from the founder” trick to sell leads (that only fools the guy sending the email) - Fiverr copywriters and designers going AWOL to sell their services - And a merge-field fail of epic proportions…. Let’s dive in! First up, we have a lead generation salesman trying to deceive his way into a deal with both me and Amanda. The message starts out kind of promising, “Hi Amanda! Our founder asked me to try to connect with you (see below).” Wow! The founder sent his sales guy straight to work with us? How cool is that? But wait. If you look a little closer at the “see below” section of the email that our lead salesman was referencing, something looks a little odd about the email “from his founder”... Do you see it? Well, let me show you what a REAL forwarded message looks like… Notice the order First, the from Then, the date (formatted as DAY of THE WEEK, MONTH, DAY at TIME) Then, the subject And finally, the to Not only is the order of Jack’s entirely wrong, it lacks ALL the formatting you typically see! In other words, the founder section of the pitch is ENTIRELY faked. And what makes it doubly funny to me is notice the day that his founder “asked him” to make the pitch – August 27! He didn’t send us this pitch until September 15. That’s almost a month later than his boss said he was willing to "waive the setup fees" for. Wow, wait to sit on a directive from your boss, Jack. Overall I give this strategy a “C-” for creativity … And “F-” for authenticity. Because can you imagine what kind of leads you would get from someone willing to blatantly blur the lines of the truth like that? That’s why I never recommend any trickery with cold emails. People can sniff out phonies, fakes and liars in an instant. And if you want to have a relationship that lasts, you need truth from first contact. More on that later. Next we have Fiverr copywriters and designers going AWOL to sell their services. I don’t know if it’s because I recently bought a bunch of stuff on Fiverr (or because I recently got listed as a seller for a fun experiment I’m working on 🤫) But recently, I’ve been getting flooded with pitches from copywriters and designers that almost all look like this… They all have strange lower case subject lines. And all starting with same “I will [insert some service] + free gift” And then, the email body copy is... well... I’m actually not sure what this is. “If you like my work, we can work” WHAT. DOES. THAT. MEAN. There’s so many things wrong with this cold email it’s not even worth pointing them all out. But the one I do HAVE to say is does it even count as a cold email if there’s no call to action? In sum: If you’re on Fiverr and someone is teaching you to do this, stop. It’s never going to work. And in the event it DOES get a reply, I PROMISE YOU it will not be a good client. Good clients do not respond to messages like this. And finally, we have a merge-field fail of truly epic proportions… That gobbly-goop is supposed to be my name. And this company has been sending me 2-3 emails every week for the past month. And in their attempt to try personalization, it looks like somebody got fat fingers when they were keying in a merge field… So I have a dozens emails all addressed to… whatever the heck that is^^ Besides the fact that this is supposed to be a reputable software company that can’t execute a simple merge field, there’s nothing that kills your chances of getting a reply than looking like a virus is about to invade your computer. This is one of many reasons I’m not a fan of using mass mailing tools for cold email in general. Because if you’re gonna do that, why not just drive ad traffic to an LP? The people have way more intent that way. And you don’t have to ruin an entire sending domain marketing to disinterested prospects. Anyway, if you want to see how to approach cold email right to land dream clients, launch new ventures, and more, [make sure to jump on the waitlist for my upcoming course](. It’s shaping up to be the best product I’ve ever created. And I really don’t think you’re gonna want to miss this. Rob “What if that crazy merge field was actually my middle name?” Allen PS. I’m 98% sure I’ve finally settled on a name for the course. Stay tuned for more details. Will announce to the waitlist folks first. Want to invest in your copywriting education? [Check out resources on email marketing, copywriting services, client tips and more.]( Looking for something to watch? [Watch hours of impactful copywriting training on my YouTube channel.]( Are we connected on Twitter? [Follow me here!]( No longer want to receive these emails? [Unsubscribe](. Kings of Conversion PO Box 1175 Boise, ID 83701 ‌